Ice Class

Ice class is the notation a classification society assigns to a hull built and powered to operate in a defined ice condition, setting plate thickness, framing, and engine output. Two scales dominate: the Finnish-Swedish Ice Class rules (IC, IB, IA, IA Super) for Baltic first-year ice, and the IACS Polar Class (PC1 strongest through PC7) referenced by the IMO Polar Code for polar multi-year and ridged ice. Ice class drives the Risk Index Values in POLARIS, where a higher class earns more positive values for a given ice regime. The class certificate caps where and in what ice a ship may trade.